


Poor Thing

by MissTantabis



Series: Tumblr Stories [16]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Blood and Gore, Child Abuse, Credence meets Gellert and has the same relationship he had with Graves in the movies, Emotional Manipulation, Gore, Jamie Campbell Bower as Gellert Grindelwald, M/M, Murder, Torture, Violence, alternative universe, basically Graves does not exist in this AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-25 18:08:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12041370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissTantabis/pseuds/MissTantabis
Summary: Credence Barebone does not have an easy life. His mother constantly abuses and hits him, and the only relief he finds in this misery is through the company of Gellert Grindelwald, a mysterious wizard. One day, Gellert offers Credence a way to solve all his problems. It has fatal consequences.





	Poor Thing

His feet almost stumbled over themselves as he was running out of the church as if the devil was after him. A devil in a church? According to the Ma, this should not be possible. The devil and his servants, those wretched wizards and witches, could not enter churches. But then what did she know? How could she see the devil when she herself was it?

Credence’s breath ragged and his vision was blurry from his tears. He staggered through the streets, nursing his hand. It was coated in thick, goozy, blood, seeping out of the streams in his palm. The flesh was reddish and throbbed. Its pain went straight through his arm, dug itself into his shoulder and splintered his skull.

Finally when all his breath seemed to have expired, Credence did not find it in him to run any longer. Thus he halted and leaned against the nearest wall in an alleyway. His eyes shut close and tears started to stream down his cheeks. He could not stop them, even if he tried.

The pain in his hand was nothing compared to the wound in his soul. He did not know how it had happened. One moment he had been preparing the soup for the other children Ma had adopted and then the next the light had started to flick and the blob just shattered somehow. Credence had tried to explain it to Mary Lou, who had wittnessed this, but he had only stammered useless words, not that they had mattered anyway. He could not have given any satisfying explanation, and Mary Lou had merely requested that he met her upstairs. And there she had asked him to fall on his knees, hand her his belt and offer her his open palms…

The memory of what had followed next made Credence buckle over and cry loudly and in shame. He wanted to bury his face in his hands, but they were so bloody and stung and hurt so much. He panted and wheezed and tried to calm his heavily beating heart.

“You were hurt again?”

Credence turned his head. The shadows near him were slowly moving and twisting. Out of them emerged a young man, maybe twenty-five years old. He had long, goldblond hair, which curled around his shoulders, and mismatched eyes. Storm and night in one face. The features always reminded Credence of a cat, and they calmed him immediatley.

He let out a sob of relief. It often felt for Credence like Gellert Grindelwald was his only friend in this misery he had to call his life. The mysterious stranger had approached him about two months ago, and while Credence had been weary at first, Gellert soon had proved himself to be a very gentle and nice man, doing him little favours like talking with him, taking him to walks in the park and giving him sweets Mary Lou would have forbidden in his house.

But that was not the only thing Credence found alluring about Gellert. It was the fact that he himself was one of these ‘servants of the devil’: a wizard. Credence had marvelled at the small displays of magic, Gellert had shown to him. A flower, blossoming in his hand. Them, being able to be anywhere in New York at the blink of an eye. A feather, floating around Credence, tickling his nose, making him smile.

Credence sighed at the question and slowly nodded. He stood there, shoulders hunched over, feet, shuffling on the ground. His head was lowered and he decided to focuss Gellert’s hands with these odd tattoos of the skull and the cross instead of his face.

“Show me.”

Gellert offered Credence his hand. Heart hammering madly in his chest, the boy carefully rose his arms and carefully placed his wrists in the offered hand, palms up. The blonde wizard’s fingers softly curled around them and Gellert gazed down at the bleeding, oozing wounds for a while.

He then rose a hand and softly brushed with his thumb over each bleeding gash. Though his touch was as carefull as he could possibly be, the sensation still made Credence yelp briefly. His eyes were wide as a warm brizzle run through his palm and the gashes closed up. Magic. Every display felt like a new wonder to him.

Gellert slowly let go of his healed palms, and for a brief moment Credence felt a stinging urge in his guts. He did not want this contact to end. It was so comforting, so soft, so helpfull. He stood there, a few feet away from Gellert and kept looking down at the other one’s pointy shoes.

Still, he could feel the mismatched eyes stare at him. Gellert’s voice was soft and husky, the german accent adding a crisp undertone. “It was worse this time, wasn’t it?” Credence nodded shakily. If he recalled the beating, then this one was close to one of the worst he had endured, and it made him wonder if aside from the oddity of the light bulb, Mary Lou had seen him head into this street.

“It was the worst yet….”, he confessed.

“Poor thing.” Gellert’s hands slowly rose and the fingers gentley closed around Credence’s hand. “It must suck to be you.” Credence looked up. New tears dwelled up in his eyes and he quickly sniffled them up, hoping he could absorb them in his eyes.

“I am scared, Gellert”, he confessed, “Sometimes I fear, I am damned. I am going to hell.” The grip thightened barely. Gellert took a step forwards, so that they were only inches from each other appart. Heat briefly flushed up Credence’s cheeks and he hastly looked away. 

“Look at me.”

Credence obeyed hesistantly and Gellert explained with a firm, yet warm gaze: “Nonsense. Hell is a children’s story to frighten us into being ashamed of who we are. You are not damned, Credence. You are a very special, young man. Blessed, not cursed.”

Credence stammered: “But Ma says that hell is real and God too. We are not invincible, Gellert. We cannot conquer death. And I am scared of it. I am scared of hell. I am scared that God makes me repent for my sins.”

Gellert moved up one of his hands and slowly began to brush his fingers over the edges of Credence’s shortly, cut hair, palm resting on his cheek. “Credence, you have nothing to repent before God, and neither do I.” He slowly came a bit more closer. “Listen, my Schattenkind, if there is a God, he will be right and just, and you will not have anything to fear. Your mother is not always right in what she says.”

Credence sighed and dropped his head. “I wish you were right”, he whispered and the fair hint of bitterness went through his speech. His mother was as allpresent and overpowering as the Lord himself. She was strict and he often felt as if he suffocated in her present. And yet he tried his best to please her. After all Credence had no one else.

“Your mother has no right to ruin such a great man as you.” Credence almost flinched at the fire, which laid in Gellert’s speech. He looked up hopefully and felt a reddish shame run over his cheeks as the blonde wizard looked deep into his eyes. He thought for a moment Gellert would think of him as weak and small, and he did not wish to give off this impression.

“You deserve better”, continued Gellert, “I see greatness in you, Credence. You should not be held down by the strictness of this woman. This narrow-minded Muggle has no idea of our world and you clearly deserve better. You are a part of our world, Credence. You are something special and wonderfull. I do not want this miracel be stumped out before it can even grow. Really, your so-called mother has no idea what gift she has in you.”

The compliments made Credence’s heart grow. Gellert had told him he was no ordinary person. He was special. There was magic in him. If this made him a wizard, he did not know. But then did all witches and wizards have this blackness inside of them? This tearing force that tried to break free so desperately? Credence had not seen it in Gellert. Or was this his gift?

“What are you suggesting then?” Credence had the feeling that Gellert actually wanted him to do something. “Ma is not going to leave anytime soon. She rejoices in best health.” The blonde wizard gave him a cunning smile as he leaned closer. His breath ghosted near his ear: “Why don’t we make her leave?”

___

This was a bad idea probably. Murder was against the law and against God’s law. If his own sins were not taking him to hell, then this most certainly would. Credence was still wrecking his brain as he tried to understand why he had actually agreed with Gellert’s plan as he lead him towards the church.

Was it the promise of a better life that lingered in Gellert’s words? Was it the simple, dull, all consuming rage, which lead him to act? Was it this feeling of being in the right? Credence could not tell. Right and wrong had become a blurr for him. They were no longer black and white, but instead a mushy grey of an undefined colour.

Credence carefully opened the door to the church and with a shy gesture waved Gellert inside it. It was the late afternoon by now after mass, and now the large capella was desolated. Silence deafened the ears. It was not a nice type of silence. It was this impossing, suffocating silence you could only find in a church that made you stand in what you thought was awe when in reality it just whispered in your ear: _Look at you. You are small and feeble compared to this. You are infinitensimal. Show respect towards the Lord_.

Credence had never liked this church, even though he reluctantly called it home. But only because he had to. The church’s stones were of grey marble and its collumns, which went along the walls, six on each side, and became thinner at their tips as they graced the ceiling, made the place look like the ribcage of a large animal. The windows were so small and milky that they hardly ever let any light in, filling everything in a hazy twilight that even the dozens of lit (though currently burned out candles) could not chase away. The air was carrying dust and a smell of old and rotten parchment. It itself reminded Credence of the air in the stomach of an animal. Thus he had the ugly feeling as if the whole church was digesting him, suffocating him together with Mary Lou’s teachings.

No wonder, he longed to be out of this place. No wonder, he craved for sunlight and fresh air. No wonder, he longed for warmth and comfort. No wonder, he always walked back to the alleyway where Gellert Grindelwald waited for him and allowed him to pour his heart out. While Mary Lou was his prisoner, Gellert Grindelwald was his rescuer, his way to freedom.

There laid several of the pamphlets on the tables in nice heaps. Credence did not look at them as he knew them all by heart, however he saw Gellert walk over curiously to one and pick one up. Stopping before the altar, Credence turned half around as he watched Gellert read one of these pamphlets.

The young boy tensed. “Are you coming, Gellert?”, he asked. Credence almost feared the other one would change his mind. He of course knew of the hatespeech of Mary Lou, Credence had told him. But what if Gellert now decided he rather wished to save his own skin? After all Mary Lou’s pamphlets were not really hiding her bad sentiment.

Gellert looked up. He gave Credence a slow smile, before he carefully pushed one of the pamphlets into his cloak pocket. “Of course.” They slowly walked out of the church’s main hall and up a narrow, worn-out staircase. Credence felt his heart race stronger. He knew Mary Lou was probably not going to be happy when she saw him with this stranger. She might even lash out on him. But he had to remember why he was here. He was not alone. Gellert would not allow her to hurt him. He could do this.

Halting in the small, narrow room upstairs, Credence found Mary Lou in an instant. She was sitting on a small, wooden stool. Her hair was shortly cut, the face hard as stone and her eyes as grey as the walls of the church. She wore a stiff bowler and a purple pullover.

Her head barely moved, however her voice had a dangerous undertone as she adressed him: “Credence, who is this stranger you brought here?” Credence feared he would falter under the harsh look, however he thightened his stance and after looking at Gellert Grindelwald, he said: “Ma, this is Gellert Grindelwald. He is…” - his throat felt as if it would tear itself out as he pressed the next words through his teeth - “a wizard.”

There. It was out. Gellert had said, it would prove no problem if Credence revealed his identity towards Mary Lou. In fact he had wanted it. He had wanted Mary Lou to know what would end her life. He had wanted to show her that what she preached was right.

Credence could only pray that they were not getting themselves into more trouble then they already did. Mary Lou stared at the both of them. She then slowly got up. “Credence”, she breathed, “Get away from this devil. Now!” She made a gesture with her hand as if she wanted to snatch Credence by his wrist and pull him away.

“No!” Why did the pain in his throat refused to leave? Credence forced himself to look into these stern, cold eyes. “I won’t. Gellert’s my friend, Ma, and he says that you are the devil.” Mary Lou’s eyes flashed. She slowly moved backwards. “I am not your Ma!”, she said coldly, “Your mother was a foul, wicked woman. An abomination. And so it seems are you.”

Her hand shot forwards and she drew out a gun, which leaned against the wall. Aiming at them, Credence helped in shock, however Gellert pushed him aside before she could fire. “Crucio!” A fling of his wand, and two new sounds filled Credence’s ears. Mary Lou screamed in pain and she fell on the ground, the gun went off and its bullett raced through the ceiling.

Credence flinched at the deafening blow and turned his head around. Mary Lou laid on the ground, body convulsing and face contorted in pain. She was making sounds Credence had never thought were possible. They were beyond human, animalistic, coming deep out of her throat, trippled and became hoarse as whatever was going on went on. Credence did not know what spell Gellert had used but he could tell that it caused immense pain.

Credence looked at Gellert, who seemed rather calm. However there was a glow in his eyes the boy had never seen there before. It was malicious, calculating and yet it looked oddly pleased. Almost like a large panther purring.

Credence turned his head back to Mary Lou as Gellert lowered his wand. The older woman gasped for breath. Blood dropped out of the corners of her lips as she looked at Credence. “You devil’s brat”, she croaked, “You are going to hell for this. I swear….why did you not listen to my teachings?”

Credence’s eyes turned inwards and became white. His muscles convulsed and something moved directly under his skin. “No”, the words came out of his chest and throat, sounding deeper and colder, “You _listen_!” The boy slowly took a few steps forwards. And as he did so, his back began to crack open. The blackish thing poured out of him, smokey and shadowy tendrils, floating around him.

“You _knew_ it!” The voice of the boy sounded distorted as if something else spoke, something older, darker and extremely hurt, “You knew I was different from the other children! You knew I was _magical_! And. You. Did. Not. Say. A. Thing!” Credence rose his hand and, as he did so, the shadows of the Obscurus wrapped themselves around his fingers, transfiguring them into long, sewerlike claws.

The smokey claws raced down and hooked themselves into Mary Lou’s stomach. The woman screamed a bloodcurling, throaty, bellowing scream and her entire body jumped upwards as Credence thore her stomach open, revealing a deep, flesh wound. Hot, warm blood shot into his face, which no longer was a face.

The Obscurus was all around him and Credence’s body now only served as a frame for the beast inside him. The boy slashed and cut his way through Mary Lou’s lower adomen and pulled out any organs he could find. He thore his way through her guts and dragged them out one by one as if they could lay Mary Lou’s sins before her.

It was a bloody mess, a cascaphony of rage, trauma and misery, a choir of screams, the tearing of flesh and that sinister feeling of Gellert watching with approval. It was a firework of madness, sadness and the feeling of never being good enough. Credence no longer even knew whom he was punishing here. His adoptive mother for abusing him? Or his real mother for giving him away?

Credence only stopped when Gellert softly laid his hand on his shoulder. The Obscurus whispered and roared, before it slowly slipped back underneath the boy’s skin, leaving him sit there, arms, legs and hands coated in blood. He gasped and rasped and for a short moment he wished to whip with his hands through his hair.

“Come on, Credence.” Gellert carefully grabbed him under his arms and helped him on his feet. “We have to leave. You did what was right.” The boy was shaken and allowed the blonde wizard to carefully push, pull and half carry him away from the place of the murder. His whole body felt numb. The blood oozed down his arms and fingers and he quivered.

Looking at Gellert, Credence rasped: “Did I honestly do what was right?” He still could not really believe what he had done there. It all felt so surreal. Like some dream. The blonde wizard nodded. “Yes. That woman was bound to die. It was her destiny, set a long time ago. And she deserved it. She damaged you in ways beyond prepare. That pain was your revenge for eightteen years of unhappiness.”

They exited the church and halted on the street. Credence blinked into the sun. He held his hand before his eyes to shield them from the light. The blood had dried. Blinking, he looked at Gellert and asked: “What do we do now?” The other one gave him a fond smile, which made Credence feel incredibley warm, even after what he had just done. “Whatever we want”, replied Gellert, “We see the little world and then the big one. We will move mountains. And I am sure you can leave your mark on our community. For the Greater Good.”


End file.
